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The Obama administration on Wednesday night asked a judge to delay a court ruling that overturned a moratorium on new drilling in the Gulf.

In court papers, the Justice Department said that it is seeking the delay while appealing the decision of U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman.

The Justice Department says a delay would serve the public interest by eliminating the risk of another drilling accident while new safety equipment standards and procedures are considered. The papers were filed with the U.S. District Court in New Orleans.

The Interior Department imposed the moratorium last month in the wake of the BP disaster, halting approval of any new permits for deepwater projects and suspending drilling on 33 exploratory wells.

On Tuesday, Feldman overturned it, saying the government simply assumed that because one deep-water rig exploded, the others pose an imminent danger, too.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s determination that a threat exists has firm support from a variety of sources, the Justice Department argued in seeking the delay.

“The existence of such a threat is not seriously contested” by any expert cited by the companies seeking to overturn the moratorium or by the state of Louisiana, the court filing stated.

“To the contrary, the state of Louisiana concedes that additional safety measures are necessary, and disputes only the length of time needed to implement them,” the department added.

Feldman, appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, has reported extensive investments in the oil and gas industry, including owning less than $15,000 of Transocean stock, according to financial disclosure reports for 2008, the most recent available. He did not return calls Tuesday seeking more information about his investments.

Microsoft Corp’s failure to deliver a tablet-friendly version of Windows is forcing big computer makers like Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc to rely on rival software to help them keep up with Apple Inc’s iPad.

Windows 7, the most recent version of Microsoft’s operating system, is too unwieldy for an iPad-like device, said David Daoud, an analyst at IDC. A lighter edition won’t be ready until the fourth quarter, giving Apple almost a year’s head start in the burgeoning market for tablets.

“The Windows world needs to respond,” said Daoud, whose firm is based in Framingham, Massachusetts. “They will have to play catch-up .”

The iPad’s success caught much of the PC industry by surprise. Within two months of the April 3 release, Apple sold 2 million iPads — more than IDC expected for the entire tablet industry in 2010. To catch up, Dell and Hewlett-Packard are turning to Google Inc’s Android operating system.

Taiwanese manufacturers that build most of the world’s PCs said they’re dissatisfied with Microsoft’s current lineup. “We don’t have any choice for now,” said Joseph Hsu, chairman and president of Taipei based manufacturer Micro-Star International Co, a maker of laptops and computer parts.

Windows 7 is too powerful and consumes too much energy from batteries, he said.
The iPad, which can display books, videos and the Internet on a thin touch screen, will reach sales of 5.5 million units this year and jump to 13 million next year, according to Macquarie Group Ltd.

‘Feedback is fair’
John Kalkman, a vice president in the Microsoft division that works with computer makers, said the feedback from PC manufacturers is “fair.” Later this year, Microsoft will release Windows Embedded Compact 7, which will require less processing power and reduces the drain on batteries.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, has tried for more than a decade to build a market for tablet-sized personal computers. Chairman Bill Gates predicted in November 2001 that the tablet would become the most popular form of PC within five years.

Demand for the Windows tablets currently sold by Hewlett- Packard and Dell has been lackluster, according to IDC. Before the iPad made its debut this year, the researcher had been forecasting that sales of tablets would decline to less than 1 per cent of the overall PC market in the US IDC had predicted total shipments of just 523,000 tablets.

Passed by Apple
Microsoft, passed by Apple as the largest technology company by market capitalisation this year, rose $1.09 to $26.58 yesterday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Palo Alto, California- based Hewlett-Packard climbed $1.10 to $47.98 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Round Rock, Texasbased Dell increased 91 cents to $14.

Intel Corp, whose chips run about 80% of the world’s PCs, hasn’t helped Microsoft’s cause. The chipmaker’s most energy-efficient tablet-ready processors don’t run Windows 7 — and won’t until early next year.

Samsung has launched its new mobile operating system Bada in India along with two new products and said it plans to bring down price of smartphones to Rs 10,000 by the year-end to capture a higher market share in the growing segment.
The company has launched Samsung Wave based on Bada platform alongwith its first smartphone on Google’s Android platform – Samsung Galaxy. Samsung has launched Samsung Wave at Rs 19,000, much lower than Samsung Galaxy that is priced at over Rs 31,000. “We want to make smartphones available to a larger population and our new platform will aid that,” said Samsung director – mobile & IT business, Ranjit Yadav said.

The company plans to bring down smartphone prices significantly with new launches this year. At present Samsung has two smartphones in the market, which work on Windows platform. The company plans to launch about eight more smartphones by year-end, almost half based on its own platform.

Samsung is targeting to sell close to 50,000 smartphones in the current fiscal year and to capture a 20% market share in a market valued at about 2.5 million handsets. Most leading brands are launching their own operating systems, with a long term view of generating revenue through content. The smartphones market in India is fraught with competition with brands like Research In Motion, Palm, Acer, Nokia, all fighting it out for a piece of the pie.

With today’s price cuts, cash-back offers and promises of ultracheap financing, it might seem like now is a great time to buy a new car. But don’t break out your checkbook just yet. Take the time to do a little homework first.

Many car-buying mistakes are quite common, say auto industry watchers. To identify those errors, we asked for advice from experts at Edmunds.com, AutoPacific, J.D. Power and Associates and AAA. They gave us their best advice for navigating what can be a confusing path to buying a car.

They also told us that most dealers are honest, reliable and hardworking local businessmen and women, but that there are some simple precautions every consumer should take before purchasing a car:

1. Talking too much. Three things to never say on the lot: “I need this car now” (desperation breeds price inflation); “I love this car” (emotions make you vulnerable); and “This is how much I can afford to pay per month” (once dealers know how much you want to pay per month, they’ll find other ways — through fees, warranties and financing — to make up the difference between that payment ceiling and how much they must make on a sale. Talk about the absolute price of a car, not the monthly payment).

2. Not doing your research. Walking into a dealership open to any ideas the salesperson has is a bad idea — it makes you vulnerable to impulsively buying something you don’t need, can’t afford or ultimately won’t want. Determining the market value of your car will help you know where to begin negotiations on the starting price of the vehicle. Use Kelley Blue Book (you can check Kelley values on MSN Autos here), the NADA Guides research center, Cars.com, AutoTrader.com and Edmunds.com to find the true market value and the expected residual value of the car you want. (See “How to find a car’s ‘real’ price.”)

3. Not being realistic about what you need. Before you hit the showroom floor, take a hard look at the kind of driving you do. Don’t assume you need a brand-new car, and consider keeping a driving journal for a week, or even a month, to chart exactly when, where and how far you drive each day. Then buy a vehicle according to those needs — not aspirations, like thinking “maybe someday we’ll need to tow a boat, so I need a truck with three-ton towing capacity.” (See “The real reason you’re broke.”)

4. Leasing a car because you can’t afford the down payment. Lease payments, especially for luxury cars, don’t require a down payment and are often cheaper per month than what it costs to buy the car outright. But they don’t always pay off. You’ve got to determine if having a new car every two or three years and with no down payment — but no ownership and no stake in the residual value — is more important than long-term cost savings and ownership of a vehicle you will eventually pay off. (See “$199-a-month new car: Not always a deal.”)

5. Assuming you’ll use the dealer’s financing. Instead of going though the dealership, arrange for financing at your bank or credit union. And choose the shortest-term car loan you can; long-term loans coax people into buying cars they can’t really afford by stretching out the payments over such a long period that the car is almost fully depreciated by the time it’s paid off. (See “10 steps to the best car loan.”)

6. Buying at the beginning of the month. Dealers don’t offer their best deals or incentives until the end of the month, when they realize how close (or far) they are from hitting monthly sales goals. So if you can, wait it out.

7. Buying at the beginning of the year. Dealers have less incentive to give you a great deal at the start of the year, when their inventory is brand-new and they have 12 months to hit annual sales targets. But in December, they’ll have to clear out old stock in time for the new model-year cars to hit the showroom. That’s when you should buy.

8. Discussing the trade-in deal during the new-car negotiation. Be honest at the beginning that you may want to trade in your old vehicle — but keep the new-car purchase discussion and the trade-in value discussion separate. If the purchase and the trade become one big transaction, it’s easier for the dealer to fudge on how much you actually pay for the new car.

9. Assuming a hybrid is “greener” than gasoline or diesel. Hybrids use less fuel than gasoline-powered cars of the same model, but they don’t always offer huge gains. The $38,340 Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid in the HY2 four-wheel-drive crew cab trim package delivers 20 miles per gallon city and highway, while the all-gas $20,850 Silverado 1500 four-wheel-drive crew cab work truck gets identical highway mileage (granted, it gets a significantly lower 14 mpg city). Smaller engines, like those found in Ford’s $28,950 EcoBoost-powered Flex, offer better fuel economy and fewer CO2 emissions compared with larger engines.

10. Visiting only one dealer. Don’t hesitate to walk off the lot if a dealer can’t meet your terms or expectations. The more you know about the options one dealer is offering, the stronger your negotiating position with another. If you live in a small town with just one showroom, call a dealer in the nearest metropolitan area to get a quote (it’ll most likely be lower than in your rural area) and then see if your local guy can meet it.

Exercise of the brain is as important as exercise of the muscles. As we grow older, it’s important that we keep mentally alert. The saying; “If you don’t use it, you will lose it,” also applies to the brain, so…..

Following is a very private way to gauge your loss or
non-loss of intelligence. Take the following test and determine if you are losing it or getting it, write down your answers on the piece of paper and look for the write answer given below……

……………Don’t Cheat………..

OK, relax, clear your mind and… Begin……………….

1. What do you put in a toaster?

2. Say “silk” five times. Now spell “silk.” What do cows drink?

3. If a red house is made from red bricks, and a blue house is made from blue bricks, and a pink house is made from pink bricks and a black house is made from black bricks, what is a green house made from??

4. Twenty years ago, a plane was flying at 20,000 feet over Germany. If you recall, Germany at the time was politically divided into West Germany and East Germany. Anyway, during the flight, TWO of the engines failed. The pilot, realizing that the last remaining engine is also failing, decides on a crash landing procedure….. Unfortunately the third engine fails before he has time to attempt an emergency landing, and the plane crashes smack in the middle of “no man’s land” between East Germany and West Germany.

Where would you bury the survivors?

. . In East Germany or West Germany or in “no man’s land”?

5. If the hour hand on a clock moves 1/60 of a degree every minute how many degrees will the hour hand move in one hour?

6. Without using a calculator — You are driving a bus from London to Milford Haven in Wales In London, 17 people get on the bus. In Reading, six people get off the bus, and nine people get on. In Swindon, two people get off and four get on. In Cardiff, 11 people get off and 16 people get on. In Swansea, three people get off and five people get on. In Carmathen, six people get off and three get on. You then arrive at Milford Haven.

What was the name of the bus driver?

Answers to the questions:

1. “bread.” If you said “toast,” try not to hurt yourself.

2. Cows drink water. If you said “milk,” Your brain is obviously over stressed and may even overheat. It may be that you need to content yourself with reading something more appropriate, such as Children’s World.

3. Greenhouses are made from glass. If you said, “Green bricks,” what the devil are you????

4. You don’t, of course, bury survivors. If you said ANYTHING else, you are a real dunce and you must NEVER try to rescue anyone from a plane crash.

Your efforts would not be appreciated.

5. One degree. If you said, “360 degrees” or anything other than “one degree,” you are to be congratulated on getting this far, but you are obviously out of your league.

6. Answer: Oh, for crying out loud! Don’t you remember? It was YOU!!! You were the bus driver!!!

Now pass this along to all your “friends” and hope they do better than you did!

About 1,000 New York City high school students chanted “This is what democracy looks like!” and waved homemade signs and banners Friday as they marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to protest a plan to eliminate their free transit passes.

The students walked out of classrooms all over the city at noon and converged at City Hall Park for a rally with elected officials and transit union members. Then they marched across the bridge for a second rally at Metropolitan Transportation Authority offices in Brooklyn.

Fernando Matos, 17, a student at Samuel Gompers High School in the Bronx, said that without a free transit pass he would have to transfer to a different school.

“I do not want to go to a local high school,” Matos said. “It doesn’t have the classes I need.”

The protest comes a day after Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a stepped-up effort to fight truancy.

Bloomberg said Friday that the students should have stayed in class.

“If I were them, I’d just think long and hard someday,” he said. “If I didn’t pass a test, I’d always go back and wonder, ‘Was it that afternoon when I was trying to be cute and be out there and picketing was better than being in class?'”

More than 500,000 city students receive free or reduced-fare MetroCards to get to and from school.

The transportation agency has proposed ending the free rides as part of its effort to close an $800 million budget gap.

Without the free passes, families would be forced to buy monthly MetroCards at a cost of about $1,000 a year per child.

“That’s money you’re taking away from buying them books,” said Debbie Officer, a mother of two from Brooklyn who joined the protest.

City Council member Letitia James of Brooklyn told the rally, “Mr. Bloomberg, you just don’t seem to get it. This is a lesson about civics, Mr. Bloomberg. This is learning.”

Sharon Litaker, a special education teacher at Banana Kelly High School in the Bronx, attended the rally to support her students.

“I just walked out,” she said. “A lot of families lost their jobs. They don’t have the extra income to pay for their children’s MetroCards.”

The students took up half the length of the bridge as they marched to Brooklyn shouting “The students, united, will never be defeated!”

A spokesman for the Department of Education said that any disciplinary action the students might face for cutting class would be up to their principals.

Two years on, the Arushi-Hemraj murder case is still a mystery for the CBI. Now, the country’s top investigative agency seems to be looking at the possibility of the involvement of a third person, as Director Ashwani Kumar said on Thursday: “We are working on three lines in the case -involvement of servants, parents and third person”. “Our teams are working day and night to get a clue in the case,” he told Newsline.

But on July 11, 2008, weeks after the murder, CBI Joint Director Arun Kumar had told the Press that servants Rajkumar, Krishna and Vijay Mandal had killed Arushi and Hemraj and that they “had enough evidence” against them. The evidence clearly seems to have been not enough, for the agency is back to square one now.

Officials, however, are not letting go of their first theory either. They still think of the trio, now out on bail, as the prime suspects. But they want to know if another person could be involved. “We had asked for details of criminals in Noida from the police,” said an officer.

Kumar, who after joining the agency, claimed that “investigations in CBI cases would be completed in one year’s time”, now says the agency cannot give any time limit. “We are investigating the case and efforts are being made,” he said, while not disclose where the investigations were now.

Arushi Talwar, daughter of a dentist couple in Noida, was found murdered at her Jalvayu Vihar flat on May 16, 2008. Hemraj, the domestic help, was also found dead on the terrace the next day.

When it comes to patenting technology and making money off it, some of these companies are hard to beat.

The patent system enshrined in the Constitution is one of the most important engines of U.S. economic growth. It’s also a good indicator of corporate smarts: The U.S. companies that won the most patents last year also had high earnings and returns on capital, meaning they’ve been good at wringing profits out of the money they invest.

IBM topped the list of U.S. companies with the most patents received in 2009, with 4,914. It was the 17th consecutive year that the Armonk, N.Y., tech giant had led.

The next company was Microsoft, which received 2,906 U.S. patents. Intel with 1,537 patents, was third. (Microsoft is the publisher of MSN Money.)

Other companies on the list included General Electric, Broadcom, Texas Instruments, Honeywell International and Hewlett-Packard.

The statistics were compiled by IFI Patent Intelligence, a unit of Dutch media company Wolters Kluwer, from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office filings.

Smart means more than a big patent portfolio, of course. Otherwise, once-prolific inventors such as AT&T and Westinghouse would still be generating high returns.

In a ranking of companies worldwide, foreign electronics manufacturers dominated the top 10 in terms of patent awards but didn’t come close to the earnings power of the top U.S. companies. U.S. companies far outperformed their foreign competitors on return on invested capital, or ROIC, a measure of how after-tax operating profits compare with assets invested in the business.

IBM had an ROIC of 29% in 2009, according to Worldscope, while Microsoft’s was 36% and Intel’s was 10%. Samsung Electronics and Canon had ROICs below 10%, and Panasonic and Toshiba were negative. The average for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index 9% last year; for tech companies, it was 9.5%.

IBM invests $6 billion a year in research and development. It has eight pure research labs around the world where scientists work on projects unconnected to any specific business proposal. It generated 39% of its $96 billion in revenue last year from services, which utilize technology but consume relatively little capital compared with manufacturing.

Measured according to earnings per patent, General Electric led with $11.3 million per patent, followed by Cisco Systems at $6.6 million and Hewlett-Packard at $6.3 million.

Who’s missing? Energy company Exxon Mobil, chemicals manufacturer Dow Chemical and drug giants Pfizer and Merck, which arguably derive more value from a given patent than any other type of company. In recent years, consumer-technology companies have risen to the top of the patent list, displacing them. But that doesn’t mean they’re not smart. It just means that breakthroughs are taking longer and are tougher to come by. It also shows how ruthless and fast the competition has become in the tech world.

“A single patent by a drug company involves more research and more protection,” said Darlene Slaughter of IFI Patent Intelligence. “A cell phone technical advance might last for a year.”

This article was reported by Daniel Fisher and Jonathan Fahey for Forbes.com.

Traffic in Delhi will literally be a cut above the rest once a web of 19 proposed flyovers is put in place by the state’s Public Works Department.

Apart from these, there are two road projects that also promise to shorten travel time — road 57 in East Delhi will be widened and a bridge will come up over the Yamuna connecting the third Pushta on M B Road to Majnu Ka Tilla on Ring Road.

Eight of the 21 projects have got the nod from the United Traffic and Transportation (Planning and Engineering) Centre or UPPTEC. The feasibility study of another five is on; the rest are approved but still on the planning table.

Among the first eight, four flyovers are coming up on Outer Ring Road — between Vikaspuri and Wazirabad — to make the stretch signal-free. These are from Vikas Puri to Meera Bagh, from Mangolpuri to Madhuban Chowk, from Madhuban Chowk to Mukarba Chowk and from Mukarba Chowk to Wazirabad. There is a recently-completed flyover already at Mukarba Chowk.

Among the rest are two that the Delhi Urban Art Commission has put the breaks on by rejecting the plans — one at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg and the other on the East West Corridor. But the PWD has not given up hope.

Significant among those undergoing the feasibility study is one at the traffic intersection of Captain Gaur Marg, close to the Modi Mill Flyover. There are major slowdowns here during peak hours because of the intersecting traffic from East of Kailash, turning left towards the Modi Mill flyover and that which goes straight down to the flyover on Outer Ring Road.

Another flyover planned is close to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). There are two already near the institute; the new one will be from the present IIT flyover to Adchini upto Anuvrat Marg.

The PWD is also planning a flyover between Mayur Vihar Phase III and the NH-24 intersection.

Another important project among these five will be the ambitious plan to cover the Najafgarh drain from Meera Bagh to Majnu Ka Tilla. From West Delhi, this will touch Karol Bagh and head straight for the north. At present, the only way to North Delhi is via the busy Azadpur intersection. The PWD also plans to connect this road with the Delhi University.

The other flyovers waiting for feasibility study include one at Brar Square on Ring Road, at the Barapulla elevated road’s extension to INA from the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, at Jwala Heri close to Paschim Vihar on MCD road, at the Mehrauli Mahipalpur Road and at the Kalindi bypass. The last project the PWD is still pondering on is a flyover at the T-point of Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar.

The Delhi municipality’s disapproval of the project has sent the PWD back to the drawing board.

“While it is true that the mainstream view in our society is that sexual contact should take place only between marital partners, there is no statutory offence that takes place when adults willingly engage in sexual relations outside the marital setting, with the exception of ‘adultery’ as defined under Section 497 IPC,” the apex court said in a judgement.

A three judge bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishna and justices Deepak Verma and B S Chauhan passed the judgement while quashing the criminal cases filed against popular south Indian actress Khushboo for her views on “pre-marital sex”.

“It is not the task of the criminal law to punish individual merely for expressing unpopular views. The threshold for placing reasonable restrictions on the ‘freedom of speech and expression’ is indeed a very high one and there should be a presumption in favour of the accused in such cases.

“It is only when the complainants produce materials that support a prima facie case for statutory offence that magistrates can proceed to take cognizance of the same.

We must be mindful that the initiation of a criminal trial is a process which carries an implicit degree of coercion and it should not be triggered by false and frivolous complaints amounting to harassment and humiliation to the accused,” the court said.

Writing the judgement, Justice Chauhan said the complaints against the actress were instituted with a malafide by office bearers of PMK party and “in order to prevent the abuse of the criminal law machinery”, the same has to be quashed.

Asserting that Khushboo’s statement was not obscene or harmed the reputation, the bench said, “the appellant’s statement published in ‘India Today’ is a rather general endorsement of pre-marital sex and her remarks are not directed at any individual or event at a ‘company’ or an association or collection of persons.” It said the statements did not invite any case for defamation as defined under Section 499 of IPC. “The appellant’s statement published in ‘India Today’ (in September 2005) is a rather general endorsement of pre-marital sex and her remarks are not directed at any individual or even at a company or an association or collection of person,” the apex court observed.

The apex court said that though Khushboo’s remarks provoked a controversy, there must be a culture of open dialogue when it comes to societal attitudes on issues like pre-marital sex and live-in relationship.

“While there can be no doubt that in India, marriage is an important social institution. We must also keep our minds open to the fact that there are certain individuals or groups who do not hold the same view.

“To be sure, there are some indigenous groups within our society wherein sexual relations outside the marital setting are accepted as a normal occurrence. Even in the societal mainstream, there are a significant number of people who see nothing wrong in engaging in pre-marital sex,” it said.

Aparigraha or the idea of non-possessiveness is one the five principles of Jainism and holds immense meaning in itself. Sub-consciously we do think about not possessing any thing that we have but still we do have possession.

Aparigraha means giving up your worldly possessions like wealth and property without attaching thoughts of what you have given up. Do mind that even you have not to possess your thoughts other wise it will be parigraha (possessioness)…….

The thoughts can comprise of sadness or happiness, peaceful or stress, excitement or unexcitement. By giving up, one should not attach himself to the very thought that he was owning something and have gave up the same in seconds.

One should learn to detach himself/herself from the possessions of thoughts, property, people and feelings. The point is, what we have today can be someone else’s tomorrow, be it a house, money, family or someone you love the most, even your thoughts may be of someone else tomorrow, you cannot possession even your thoughts.

We have to give up the attributes of life that do not help us become what we are or what we should be. We keep them within our soul, mind, heart and body and stop ourselves from attaining moksha (i.e. the liberation or freedom from the cycle of death and rebirth and all of the suffering and limitation of worldly existence).

According to the Tirthankars (i.e. the souls who has attain the liberation), moksha is attained when we attain Samyak Darshan i.e. true perception, it means to see the things around us (including us) just as we are seeing a drama (like we watch to another i.e. become audiance even to your own body). It is then we remain in the nature of soul without raag (attachment) and dwesh (repulsion) and have finally reached a state of knowledge, bliss and enlightenment.

But we confuse ourselves with ourselves and with what people want to see us as. Attachment leads us to different karmas and we keep moving between birth, suffering and death.

There are two sides of a coin; pleasure and suffering, happiness and sadness, love and hate, wealth and poverty. This is just a perception and one does not exist without the other. Once we have trained ourselves to think beyond these perceptions, we have attained what is called moksha. With time, we tend to mold the principles according to our needs and we all know we have done that to an extent that our self consciousness also justifies the change.

But isn’t change the only constant thing in this world? Then why not change ourselves by changing our habits and our thinking. We do not need to give up everything in order to do this. As it is we who have molded the principles to our requirements. The adapting of non-possessiveness comes only with a simple understanding that nothing in life is consistent or immortal. Everything today is going to change tomorrow, may it be things, status, money, relations or situations- good or bad. It is just waste of time and energy to get possessed with worldly things and people and then get grief-stricken on losing them. But this state of mind is much easier told than experienced. It takes a lot of thinking and understanding to achieve a state of Non-possessiveness towards something. Life should be taken as a journey and not a destination. There will be indefinite stations in the way and each station/ phase has something new and different to show. Your best bet would be get the best out of every phase and dump the rest.

Pranayama, or yoga breathing exercise, has been widely referred to as the ‘science of breath control’.

It comprises exercises designed to keep the body in a vibrant, healthy condition. This article will provide a brief introduction to Pranayama, address its’ many advantages and give examples of beginner yoga breathing exercise practices.

When the body is relaxed and the mind is focused, yoga breathing exercise methods allow for a more fulfilling spiritual journey.

Two Beginner Pranayama Exercises

Kapalabhati (Cleansing Breath)

specifically designed to clear mucus from the air passages

Take two normal breaths Inhale, then exhale, pulling in your abdomen.

Repeat twenty times, keeping a constant rhythm with emphasis on the exhalation.

Inhale, exhale fully, inhale fully and hold your breath for as long as possible.

Slowly exhale.

Anuloma Viloma

(alternate nostril breathing), which equalizes the flow of Prana in the body.

Adopt the Vishnu Mudra with your right hand, tucking your index and middle fingers into your nostrils. Your thumb and other fingers should be placed either side of your nostrils.

Inhale through the left nostril, holding the right one closed with your thumb; count to four.

Close both nostrils and hold your breath; count to 16.

Breathe out through your right nostril, holding the left one closed with your ring and little fingers; count to eight.

Breathe in through the right nostril, closing the left one with your fingers; count to four.

Close both nostrils and hold your breath; count to 16.

Breathe out through your left nostril, closing the right one with your thumb; count to eight.

There are many other yoga breathing exercise practices, from simple ones to quite advance techniques. These are best learned via practical demonstration from an instructor; attempting to perform more advanced yoga breathing exercise methods without adequate instruction can result in injury.

While previous missions have also suggested the presence of water on Mars, NASA says the recent evidence is more concrete. Boffins are especially excited over the discovery of gypsum – a sulphate found in fossils in the Mediterranean.

Jack Farmer, researcher at the Arizona State University, in Tempe, Arizona, was “optimistic” there was – or had been – life on Mars. “One, thanks to Opportunity and the rovers and orbital imaging it is clear that there are literally vast areas of Mars that are carpeted with various sorts of sulphates, including gypsum,” the Sun quoted Bill Schopf, researcher at the University of California in Los Angeles, as saying.

Schopf went on: “Two, it turns out on earth there just hasn”t been hardly any work done at all to show whether gypsum ever includes within it preserved evidence of former life.

“The age doesn”t matter. We just didn”t know that fossils and organic matter and things like that were well preserved within gypsum. “So, three, it turns out that now we have made that first step we are going to find out how widespread it is in other sulphate deposits on earth.

“And those lines of evidence will then give us a way to justify going to Mars and looking at gypsum because it looks as though based on these findings that is going to turn out to be a really excellent place to find evidence of ancient life, regardless of age, if in fact it is there.”

According to Dr Steve Squyres, of Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, a sample of Mars rock would help establish the presence of life on the planet. He believes the presence of Methane in the Martian atmosphere hinted at the possibility of life.

Squyres said: “Methane is a molecule that should go away very quickly. We need to send a mission to find out if the source is biological. “We also need to send a mission to return samples from Mars. That would enable scientists to find out whether Mars might ever have harboured life.

He added: “If we are ever going to show if there was ever life on Mars, I think we”re going to have to study samples back on Earth.”

Icy asteroid may offer clues to source of Earth”s water

Scientists analysing ice molecules on an asteroid believe it may be a ”living fossil” with clues to origin of Earth’s oceans. Researchers at the University of Central Florida discovered a thin layer of water ice and organic molecules on the surface of 24 Themis, the largest member of the Themis asteroid family orbiting between Mars and Jupiter.

Lead author and UCF Physics Professor HumbertoCampins said: “What we”ve found suggests that an asteroid like this one may have hit Earth and brought our planet its water.” According to some theories, asteroids brought water to Earth after the planet formed dry.

Scientists say the salts and water that have been found in some meteorites support this view. Using NASA”s Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii, Campins and his team of researchers measured the intensity of the reflected sunlight as 24 Themis rotated.

Differences in intensity at different wavelengths helped researchers determine the makeup of the asteroid”s surface.Researchers were surprised to find ice and carbon-based compounds evenly distributed on 24 Themis.

The discovery of ice is unexpected because surface ice should be short lived on asteroids, which are expected to be too warm for ice to survive for long. The distance between this asteroid and the sun is about three times greater than between Earth and the sun.

While scientists will continue testing various hypotheses to explain the presence of ice, the most promising possibility perhaps is that 24 Themis might have preserved the ice in its subsoil, just below the surface, as a kind of “living fossil” or remnant of an early solar system that was generally considered to have disappeared long ago. The findings will appear in the journal Nature.

Is this the only use left of the social sites now?

Facebook and other social sites are not only for flirting with girls and getting pass their phone numbers…..these sites are for social connectivity ….to connect with the world, meet new people …make new friends!

This is not for sex chat only …..This is for lot more important things of the world !

All the important information related to ones’ filed are available here. Flirting on these social network sites is not going to help you give new heights to achieve your aims; in fact you will waste your time on them…what is the use of telling the world that you are here to harass girls …!

Tell your views to the whole world here …..What do you think, what do you understand…let others now it. What is the benefit of telling the world that you are here to harass girls…?

A Big % of the people are here only to pass their time and to flirt around with girls. Most of the boys start chatting and their 4th or 5th line is “HAVE YOU ANY BF”?

Don’t know why they feel that all the female friends are sitting here only for hot chat or to give their cell numbers.

The kind of messages you get in the in box, after reading them it sometimes feels that one should leave these sites, but then they have a lot of benefits too.

I don’t say that all the members are like this ….. facebook has lot of good and responsible members.

There is a possibility that you don’t agree with my views, but I believe that my words are 100% true!

If you are not getting things of your benefits here, then please don’t waste your time here…only making a girlfriend will not solve all the issues of life my dear friends!!!

And now the chain of advertising has also started, now a lot of users make id to promote their product of program on the site. the number of unwanted messages and scraps is so high, that the use gets confused.

Friend request from unknown users also adds up to the problems, it creates a lot of disturbance and threat to the privacy. The better way is to send request only to the friends. It’s better to have known friends then the crowd of unknown friends’ .so that socialization can be used in a better way.

There is a possibility that you mind my views, but this is the truth…you may be older than me…

I am not telling all this to the members who have positive thinking…!

If you agree with my thinking…then please please share this note with all your friends…And if you don’t agree then please comments, as I want to know what everyone thinks…??

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem.
One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, “Do you know
what I just heard about your friend?”

“Hold on a minute,” Socrates replied. “Before telling me anything I’d like
you to pass a little test. It’s called the Triple Filter Test.”

“Triple filter?”

“That’s right,” Socrates continued. “Before you talk to me about my friend,
it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you’re going to
say. That’s why I call it the triple filter test.

The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are
about to tell me is true?”

“No,” the man said, “actually I just heard about it and…”

“All right,” said Socrates. “So you don’t really know if it’s true or not.
Now let’s try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are
about to tell me about my friend something good?”

“No, on the contrary…”

“So,” Socrates continued, “you want to tell me something bad about him,
but you’re not certain it’s true. You may still pass the test though,
because there’s one filter left: the filter of Usefulness. Is what you
want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?”

“No, not really.”

“Well,” concluded Socrates, “if what you want to tell me is neither true
nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?”

This is why Socrates was a great philosopher & held in such high esteem.
Friends, use this triple filter each time u hear loose talk about any of
your near & dear friends

Mattel’s decision to shut its flagship store in Shanghai follows failures by other US retailers in China including Home Depot and Best Buy

Barbie, the slender symbol of American consumerism, has shut up shop in Shanghai just two years after opening her biggest flagship store in China’s most populous city.

Mattel, owner of the iconic doll brand, said the bright pink, six-storey store had served its purpose of building brand awareness in the new market.

But analysts say the investment was a failure because it did not adjust to the local market.

The withdrawal comes on the heels of store closures in China by US retailers Home Depot and Best Buy, which have both struggled to crack the local market.

The failure of the US brands to prosper come despite efforts by the Chinese government to make boosting domestic consumption a top policy priority. Retail sales grew at more than 18 per cent in 2010 from a year earlier.

“None of the three companies — Best Buy, Home Depot or Barbie — have catered to local consumer preferences and habits enough,” said Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group.

“In Barbie’s case, they chose the wrong location [for the flagship store] and they offered sexy clothes designed by Patricia Fields of Sex and the City fame when young Chinese women tend to prefer cute designs like Hello Kitty.”

As well as having the world’s biggest collection of Barbie dolls and expensive Barbie-themed clothing, the flagship store on the chic Huaihai Road boasted a beauty salon and restaurant where young Chinese could get made up like Barbie and eat her favourite food.

When the store opened with great fanfare in March 2009, Mattel said it would be the “ultimate destination for both young girls who call Barbie a best friend and women who appreciate Barbie as a fashion and lifestyle icon.”

However, a Mattel spokesperson said on Monday that the closure was “mainly due to a strategy change” in China and that the company “continues to be committed” to developing the Barbie brand in the country.

Analysts said Barbie, Best Buy and Home Depot were all seen by consumers as expensive in a price-sensitive market where Chinese competitors operate on razor-thin margins.

Many western brands, such as Nike, LVMH, Carrefour and Wal-Mart, have successfully localised in China and become hugely profitable there.

Best Buy’s business model in the US, where it markets itself as providing better service than competitors, did not go down well with Chinese consumers and in February it said it would close all nine Best Buy-branded stores in China.

Home Depot acquired 10 stores in China in 2006, but has closed five of them in the past two years after struggling to compete in the cut-throat home improvement market.

However, the spate of failures do not appear to have dissuaded another icon of US consumer culture from investing in Shanghai.

The city’s mayor was quoted in state media on Monday saying the Chinese government had approved Rmb24.5bn ($3.7bn) for investment in a Disney theme park to be built by Walt Disney Co in the city by 2015.

After Sonakshi Sinha, it’s actress Vidya Balan who’s facing the consequences of being a celeb in the time of the internet.

Last December, morphed pictures of Sonakshi Sinha in a bikini for a magazine cover had floated online. But, Sonakshi was quick to point out and clarified immediately on her social networking page that those were not her pictures, and that she was shocked at the stories around the fake photo shoot.

And now Vidya’s facing the same situation. A few days ago, she was shocked to learn that a morphed picture of hers in a black bikini for a magazine cover had been posted online and was doing the rounds. The photo has been morphed on the cover of a famous men’s magazine for the ‘Annual 2011′ edition. But when we contacted the actress, she was completely shocked and denied shooting for the mag. She is now taking legal action against those responsible for this. She told us, “First Sonakshi and then me… When I heard there was a picture of me in a bikini on a magazine cover, I thought someone was being mistaken for me because I haven’t done a shoot like this. But I was shocked when I saw it. I will be taking proper legal action against the people who are responsible for this.”

The two aren’t the first to suffer the bane of morphed pictures that make their way online. In 2009, actress Celina Jaitly had filed a legal case against two websites – a gadgets blog and a Bollywood portal – for uploading obscene morphed picture of hers online. A magazine, in 2006, had carried morphed pictures of South Indian star Khushboo in a red transparent bikini, which had resulted in the actress filing a police complaint against the magazine.

A man and his wife go to their honeymoon hotel for their 25th anniversary. As the couple reflected on that magical evening 25 years ago, the wife asked the husband, “When you first saw my naked body in front of you, what was going through your mind?”

The husband replied, “All I wanted to do was to fuck your brains out, and suck your tits dry.”

Then, as the wife undressed, she asked, “What are you thinking now?”

He replied, “It looks as if I did a pretty good job.”

As an airplane is about to crash, a female passenger jumps up frantically and announces, “If I’m going to die, I want to die feeling like a woman.”

She removes all her clothing and asks, “Is there someone on this plane who is man enough to make me feel like a woman?”

A man stands up, removes his shirt and says, “Here, iron this!”.

One morning a woman was walking out of her front door, when she notices a strange little man at the bottom of her garden.

“You’re a goblin,” she says, “I caught you and you owe me three wishes!”. So the goblin replies “OK, you caught me fair and square, what’s your first wish?”. The woman stops and thinks for a second, “I want a huge mansion to live in.”, goblins replies “OK, you’ve got it.”. Woman again thinks it over, “My second wish is a Mercedes.” “OK, you’ve got that too.” “My last wish is a million dollars!”. The goblin then says “OK, you’ve got it. But to make your wishes come true you have to have sex all night with me.” “OK then, if that’s what it takes…”

Next morning the little man wakes the woman up.

“Tell me,” says the man, “how old are you?” “I’m 27″, she replies

“Fuck me”, says the man, “27 and you still believe in goblins”

The newlyweds are in their honeymoon room and the groom decides to let the bride know where she stands right from the start of the marriage.

He proceeds to take off his trousers and throw them at her. He says, “Put those on.”

The bride replies, “I can’t wear your trousers.”

He replies, “And don’t forget that! I will always wear the pants in the family!”

The bride takes off her knickers and throws them at him with the same request, “Try those on!”

He replies,”I can’t get into your knickers!”

“And you never bloody will if you don’t change your attitude.”

How are women and tornadoes alike?

They both moan like hell when they come, and take the house when they leave.

There was an elderly man who wanted to make his younger wife pregnant. So, he went to the doctor to have a sperm count done. The doctor told him to take a specimen cup home, fill it, and bring it back the next day. The elderly man came back the next day and the specimen cup was empty and the lid was on it. Doctor: What was the problem? Elderly man: Well, you I tried with my right hand…nothing. So, I tried with my left hand…nothing. My wife tried with her right hand…nothing. Her left hand…nothing. Her mouth…nothing. Then my wife’s friend tried. Right hand, left hand, mouth….still nothing. Doctor: Wait a minute. You mean your wife’s friend too?! Elderly man: Yeah, and we still couldn’t get the lid off of the specimen cup.

A guy walks into a sperm donor bank wearing a ski mask and holding a gun. He goes up to the nurse and demands her to open the sperm bank vault. She says “But sir, its just a sperm bank!”, “I don’t care, open it now!!!” he replies. So she opens the door to the vault and inside are all the sperm samples. The guy says “Take one of those sperm samples and drink it!”, she looks at him “BUT, they are sperm samples???” , “DO IT!”. So the nurse sucks it back. “That one there, drink that one as well.”, so the nurse drinks that one as well. Finally after 4 samples the man takes off his ski mask and says, “See honey – its not that hard.”

There are four kinds of sex :

HOUSE SEX – When you are newly married and have sex all over the house in every room.

BEDROOM SEX – After you have been married for a while, you only have sex in the bedroom.

HALL SEX – After you’ve been married for many, many years you just pass each other in the hall and say “FUCK YOU”

COURTROOM SEX – When your wife and her lawyer fuck you in the divorce court in front of many people for every penny you’ve got.

This beautiful woman one day walks into a doctors office and the doctor is bowled over by how stunningly awesome she is. All his professionallism goes right out the window…

He tells her to take her pants, she does, and he starts rubbing her thighs.

“Do you know what I am doing?” asks the doctor?

“Yes, checking for abnormalities.” she replies.

He tells her to take off her shirt and bra, she takes them off. The doctor begins rubbing her breasts and asks, “Do you know what I am doing now?”, she replies, “Yes, checking for cancer.”

Finally, he tells her to take off her panties, lays her on the table, gets on top of her and starts having sex with her. He says to her, “Do you know what I am doing now?”

We spend a lot of time acquiring intelligence at the expense of developing intellect.

Intelligence is built by gaining information, knowledge from external agencies, from schools and universities, teachers and textbooks. The intellect is developed through your individual effort by exercising the faculty of questioning, thinking and reasoning. Not accepting anything that does not admit logic or reason. Know the difference between the two. And that any amount of intelligence gained cannot per se build your intellect.

The intelligence acquired from external agencies is much like data fed into a computer. Consider, a computer charged with a complete knowledge of fire extinguishers, firefighting and fire escapes. All the knowledge stored in its memory cannot help the computer act on its own. If the room catches fire, it cannot escape. It will go up in flames. Likewise, all the knowledge you acquire is of no use to you without an intellect.

You need a powerful intellect to put the knowledge, intelligence gained, to practical use in life. That explains why among millions of doctors graduating from medical schools only a few have discovered life-saving drugs and surgeries, finding cures and remedies. So too, millions of engineers have passed out of engineering schools but only few design something unusual like the Panama Canal or Eurotunnel. It is their intellect that renders their performance outstanding. Besides hindering success and progress, intelligence without intellect could destroy peace and happiness in the world.

Not realising the importance of the intellect in life people make no attempt to develop their own. Instead, they merely indulge in acquiring intelligence through surface reading of others’ periodicals and publications. Few go into the depth of any literature. Education has lost its meaning and purpose. For generations human beings have turned into intelligent robots and are traversing through life without awareness, much less enquiring into the meaning and purpose of life. Herbert Spencer, a profound thinker and writer, was a rare luminary. Someone asked him if he was a voracious reader. He said: “No sir, if I were as big a reader as others, I would have been as big an ignoramus as they.”

The world today is in a state of chaos due to the perversion in human development − all intelligence and no intellect. That explains why even highly educated businesspersons, professionals and scholars become alcoholics, are short tempered and succumb to worry and anxiety. It is the mind that craves alcohol. It is the mind that loses its temper. Again, it is the mind that constantly harbours worry of the past and anxiety for the future. When the intellect remains undeveloped and weak, it is unable to control the vagaries of the mind. The frail intellect looks on helplessly as the mind devastates the person. In such a condition the business, profession and even family relationship run into shambles. On the contrary those having developed a powerful intellect, with or without academic distinction, can hold the mind under perfect control and direct action to spell success and peace in life.

The educational systems the world over must be held responsible for the debacle of the intellect. It is their primary responsibility to strike an equable balance between acquiring intelligence and developing the intellect. Only by maintaining this essential equation can governments be run, businesses conducted, professions practised and families live in peace and prosperity.